Monterenzio
Subject: Rocks and fossils
Toponym: Salsa di Sassuno
Type: Mud volcanoes
Municipality: Monterenzio
Locality: Sassuno
Description
Mud volcanoes (salses) are emissions of saline mud and cold muddy water that are deposited in cone-shaped mounds, with gases and bituminous substances spewing from the summit in varying amounts.
The Sassuno mud volcano is located below the parish church of the same name, amidst the scaly clay on the right side of the Rio Sassuno; material is ejected from a small mud cone called the "Dragon", which over time has given rise to a conspicuous tongue over a hundred metres long and about ten metres wide.
The mud volcano has been quiescent for a long time and only in certain periods is the pressure of the gases sufficient to cause liquid mud to rise to the surface.
However, in a document by Serafino Calindri (1783), we read that in the periods of activity of the volcano, abundant, very fluid mud was emitted from the volcano cone, accompanied by dull thuds and ground tremors.